West Ham United reserve-team manager Alex Dyer is hoping his side can give the club a morale-boosting victory when they take on Manchester City on Tuesday afternoon.
Dyer is hoping his second-string can also boost their own title hopes by defeating Andy Welsh's side at Thurrock FC's Ship Lane stadium, kick-off 2pm.
Radoslav Kovac, Winston Reid (pictured), Jonathan Spector, Marek Stech and Frank Nouble are among those who could feature in Dyer's squad, while a number of the club's young professionals will be eager to make their mark.
"I think we can give everyone a boost," said Dyer. "The reserves have done quite well this year. We've had a couple of sticky results recently, losing at Arsenal in the league and in a friendly at Crystal Palace in which I played a lot of trialists, so I'm writing that one off.
"We now get back to the league programme and I want to do really well on Tuesday against a Man City side who are doing well in their own league.
"Obviously they are a big club and are always in the media so it would be nice to get one over them, whatever level it is at."
The reserves made a storming start to the 2010/11 campaign, winning away at Everton and Liverpool and defeating Wigan Athletic, only for Arsenal to end their unbeaten run with a 4-1 victory at London Colney a fortnight ago.
That defeat left the Hammers fourth in the Southern Group, five points behind leaders Aston Villa, but with three games in-hand on the reigning national Premier Reserve League champions.
Tuesday's opponents are also seeking to bounce back from their first reverse of the season, having been defeated 2-0 at Wigan last time out. City sit third in Northern Group A, having collected ten points from their opening five league matches.
With City in UEFA Europa League action at Polish side KKS Lech Poznan on Thursday evening, the visitors are expected to bring a squad of youngsters to Ship Lane.
*West Ham supporters should note that the reserves' away fixture at Blackpool will now be staged at Bloomfield Road on Wednesday 15 December, kick-off 3pm.